Day 19 – Surprising My Grandson Liam On His 5th Birthday

Day 19 – March 31, 2016

My day started off excitedly since I knew that I would shortly be seeing and hugging three of my precious grand children and spending Liam’s 5th birthday with him.

I was totally ready to hit the road for the about 4-1/2 hour drive. Gassing up in Cottage Grove proved just another one of those great old traditions that still live in this Oregon town; there were two pump attendants taking care of the clientele. Delightful.

The trip all the way up through Oregon stayed very pleasant and kind of laid back, even Portland, the number one Green Energy City in the States, we found out later. As we maneuvered through the bridges and overpasses in the city we glimpsed at the Welcome to Washington sign, knowing it would only be a couple of hours more before the first leg of our cross country trip was over.

My daughter and family live on Bangor Military Base, so we had to get permission to stay with them and get our car registered before entering. They also had to do a background check on me. I was already used to this type of security since I have previously lived on military bases. I am actually thankful they live on base and my mind has the security of knowing that they are safer when David has to go out to sea.

We also had to take the time to store my P238 with one of their friends who lives off base.

We finally got on base and arrived at their home. A very nice four bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse with a play ground right outside their back door, where the local deer frequent often.

All the children were at the park with my daughter (who was expecting us) and we casually walked up and watched them play until they noticed us standing there.

It was an amazing feeling to see their precious little faces beaming from ear to ear and hear them screaming “Nonny.”

Many hugs later, the kids wanted to show us their rooms and new home, oh and the very tame deer that roam around right outside their backdoor looking for some handouts of food. I learned that these deer like croissants, as they are upscale (spoiled) deer. LOL

TODAY’s TRIP